Free Members’ Webinar: Caring for Carers in Psychiatry Training and Workforce – 27 January 2022

This webinar was conceived as an opportunity to raise awareness, showcase good practice, advocate for career support for doctors (psychiatrists) with complex caring responsibilities; the advantage they bring to the system and why the system needs to accommodate and nurture them - at their pace.

The first talk by Raka set the scene with the status in the UK- the scale of the issue, the initiatives, the gaps in policies. The second talk by Christina focused on how she got interested in research about physicians with complex caring responsibilities, and how this helps inform policy changes locally and nationally. The final talk by Wendy focused on what she has learnt during her career on how to support psychiatrists with caring responsibilities. She’s recently been involved with national level well-being report and could therefore bring in that focus to discuss why this is important.

The webinar tied in with the current 'NHS commitment to carers' and NHS Peoples plan.

Attendees were provided with a list of resources such that they could initiate good practice in their workplaces. We hope that this discussion informed the College to consider some of the recruitment and retention strategies thus building a diverse, insightful and resourceful workforce.

Speakers included:

• Prof Wendy Burn CBE, Past President, RCPsych UK
• Prof Christina Mangurian Vice Chair for Diversity and Health Equity, UCSF Department of Psychiatry, USA
• Dr Raka Maitra ST5 CAMHS and Complex caring responsibilities lead of WMHSIG, RCPsych

This was followed by a Q&A session.